


Gekkan Shoujo Ryugazaki-kun

by patriciaselina



Category: Free!, 月刊少女野崎くん | Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Gekkan Shoujo AU, Happy birthday Rei-chan!!!, M/M, POV Third Person Omniscient, lovestruck Nagisa-kun, oblivious Rei-chan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-03
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-02-27 23:25:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2710511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/patriciaselina/pseuds/patriciaselina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Here it goes. Just three little words. He could do this. Nagisa just spent the entire last week practicing in front of the mirror, for heaven’s sake –<br/>“I – I –” Nagisa stutters, before screwing his eyes shut and blurting out, “ – Ryugazaki-kun! I’m a big fan of your work!”<br/>So. That was not just three words.</p><p>(In which the boy Nagisa Hazuki falls for is a shoujo manga-ka. Gekkan Shoujo AU. Advanced happy birthday present for Rei Ryugazaki.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> (Advanced) Happy birthday, Rei-kun!  
> Was gonna make an AMV, or another birthday party fic (like [last year’s Purple Ombre Mini Cakes](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1080681)), but I ended up banging my head against my desk a la Hiro Hamada (Useless empty brainnnnnn) and eventually ended up with this crossover with my new fandom, Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun.  
> The interesting thing is that everyone else is pretty much IC here, save the fact that due to their casting, both Nagisa and Rei would be really good at art. Anyway. Here are the words, hope you like ‘em!

_It’s now or never._

That’s the only thing going through Nagisa Hazuki’s mind right now.

“Ryugazaki-kun!”

“Ah. Hazuki-san?”

Nagisa sighs in relief – it’s just his lucky luck that he catches the other man here, all alone in an empty classroom. Actually it’s not so much dependent on luck – it’s more dependent on the fact that he knows Rei Ryugazaki’s class schedule by heart with an intensity that would make even the most seasoned private investigator shiver.

And also on the fact that he also knows Ryugazaki always just...hangs back after his classes end, for some reason, scribbling down something in a small notepad and looking out the window. This is not something that Nagisa would admit he knows because he also hangs back to pass by the open doors of class 2-A, watching how the golden-yellow tones of the setting sun brings out the innate shininess of Ryugazaki’s artfully windswept hair, even if that’s just exactly what happens each and every freaking day Nagisa doesn’t go to his afterschool art club.

The point is, just about all of Iwatobi High and their mothers know that Nagisa has a fixation on Rei Ryugazaki that is barely bordering on the unhealthy side right about now. Nagisa thinks it’d only be fair that Ryugazaki himself gets to know this.

Here it goes. Just three little words. He could do this. Nagisa just spent the entire _last_ _week_ practicing in front of the mirror, _for heaven’s sake_ –

“I – I –” Nagisa stutters, before screwing his eyes shut and blurting out, “ – Ryugazaki-kun! I’m a big fan of your work!”

That was not just three words.

Also, _I’m a big fan of your work._ Wow. Only the most awkward love confession ever. Does that even _sound_ like a love confession? It souds like something Nagisa would tell his favorite artist at a meet-and-greet convention.

Okay, so maybe that was a true thing, those words that he said – because the entire body of Rei Ryugazaki’s ‘ _work_ ’ also includes his flawless high jumps and how he tops just about every exam in existence, and also how he maintains such a flawless set of musculature that no, Nagisa does _not_ find himself losing sleep over every time he remembers how Ryugazaki looks like in those itty-bitty track shorts. _Nope_.

Nagisa’s so lost in his thoughts (waysided by that damned track uniform, as per usual – ugh, those _arms_ ) that he doesn’t even realize that Ryugazaki had moved at all, until he leans forward and hands Nagisa something. “Here you go.”

It’s some kind of board, and a scribble. Some kind of girl’s name.

Who the hell is _Reina_?

It only dawns on Nagisa that Ryugazaki gave him an autograph, of someone – whoever it is, Nagisa’s got no time for guessing – because he had blurted out that he was a ‘ _big fan_ ’. But seriously, who the freaking hell is _Reina_? Some kinda obscure idol or something? (Rei’s sister?) Never mind that for now.

“That’s not what I _meant_ , Ryugazaki-kun!” Nagisa wails, pretty much sure he could open the gates to the underworld with the sheer amount of frustration stewing in him right about now. “I meant – ahh, screw it, that’s not what I meant at all! I meant to say that I, I,” _Tell him you like him, you fantastic idiot dork, Momo’s gonna have a field day when he hears of this,_ “I always want to be with you, Ryugazaki-kun! I always want to be with you, in the same place, together!”

How does one speak words. Nagisa thinks he’s forgotten.

Crap, it’s a good thing everyone’s left already, Nagisa’s cheeks are so damned _red_ and it’s really, _seriously_ a good thing that it’s only Ryugazaki who has to deal with his idiocy, but does that make things better or worse...

Ryugazaki, on the other hand, is simply poker-faced as ever, nodding solemnly and saying. “All right. Let’s go to my house right now.”

Wait.

_What?_

What the hell just happened here.

Nagisa falls into step beside him anyway.

* * *

 

 

Okay, so here they are. It’s an understated, classily minimal apartment, just around a good fifteen minutes’ walk from Iwatobi High, and of course Nagisa had known in all the year he’d fallen head-over-freaking-heels over Rei Ryugazaki that that guy lives alone. Alone. In an apartment. With _Ryugazaki_.

Nagisa’s not stupid. He thinks he knows what’s coming next. For the most part. But he’s never expected _Ryugazaki_ – cool, poker-faced, eternally serious Ryugazaki – to be the one to make an offer. Oh my God. My _God_. They’re going in the front door, one foot in front of the other. Is this seriously happening??

On one hand – Ryugazaki had just locked the door behind them. Crap, this is _seriously_ happening.

On the other hand – this is _Ryugazaki_ , who Nagisa would’ve climbed like a freaking tree some thirty-three weeks ago if only for some pesky thing called _public decency_ getting in his way. So.

“Ryugazaki-kun!”

“Hm?”

“I’ll – I’ll do my best!”

Excuse him for being so... _eager_.

Ryugazaki looks at him, just _looks_ at him, ushers him to an uncovered _kotatsu_ in the living room, and hands him a smallish pile of papers from his nearby desk.

“Thank you, Hazuki-kun. Please make sure to color inside the lines, then.”

Nagisa doesn’t know what’s happening right now, but what he does know is that this...was not what he had expected.

Having years in afterschool art club under his belt means that Nagisa’s hand flies, just _flies_ , across the manuscript without him even paying more than the required interest in what he’s doing. It’s just a simple tracing job, inking over the sketches, shading some places in black ink, and another distant part of his brain faintly rejoices over the fact that Ryugazaki keeps looking over his shoulder, offering him words of praise and the occasional hot chocolate. It’s only after the third proffered hot drink, however, that Nagisa snaps to it, eyes wide, and blurts out –

“Ryugazaki-kun, you’re a _manga artist_??”

Ryugazaki just sighs, sets down the steaming mug (Ryugazaki has _purple butterfly_ mugs, how _cute_ ) on top of the _kotatsu_ , and says, “Hazuki-san, why did it take you four hours to realize that?”

* * *

 

 

Was yesterday just a dream? Yup. Yesterday was _definitely_ a dream. Ryugazaki, cool serious always-nonplussed _Ryugazaki_ , a romance _manga_ artist? Nope. Definitely one for the crazy books. Something that would never _ever_ freaking happen.

Last night, while Nagisa had been gaping open-mouthedly like some kind of obscure fish, Ryugazaki had calmly sipped his tea and said that his _manga_ was a running serialization. _Butterfly Love_ or something, with a heroine named, thematically enough, _Cho_.

Now, Nagisa’s not exactly a _manga_ reader. He’s never been interested in reading _manga_ , not if he could just buy other stuff with his allowance instead, like penguin plushies and _Iwatobikkuri-pan_. But one of his sisters is, so he braves the veritable hurricane of her room and eventually gets ahold of one of her newest titles – _Monthly Girl’s Romance_.

 _Chouko Reina. The Butterfly In Love_. _Chapter Twenty._

Okay, so Ryugazaki-kun – if this really, totally, _absolutely_ was Ryugazaki’s work and not the work of one of Nagisa’s more potent fever dreams – _really_ likes butterflies.

This can’t be. This _couldn’t_ be. Ryugazaki-kun, who he’d seen watch one of their drama club’s really heartbreakingly sappily sad plays without batting an eyelash. Ryugazaki, who’d stared down a cockroach without even his lips twitching, while all of mankind (okay, all of their entire year, save Momo) had been rendered into one twitchy mess. Romance writer? _Sappy_ romance writer? It does not compute.

Oh, well. Guess there’s only one way to find out.

There he goes again, trotting off to class 2-A with no care in the world, on those long legs that just go on forever and _then_ some, and he’s a magnificent specimen of perfection as per usual, but that’s not the point and Nagisa’s kind of got business to do here – “ _Chouko-sensei!_ ”

Ryugazaki looks back at him, eyes cool and emotionless as always, as if Nagisa had just called him by name.

Not a dream, then.

“It’s still a bit weird to hear someone call me that at school,” Ryugazaki confesses, as Nagisa falls into step beside him. So what if Nagisa’s class 2-B is the other way. Nagisa doesn’t think he cares any bit. “No one around here knows of that.”

“So nobody around here knows you’re a _manga_ artist?” _And yet he told me – does that mean I’m a special case?? Oh wow wow wow._ “Did you not want anyone to know about it?”

“No, it’s not like that, not exactly.” Ryugazaki says, his hand on his chin, deep in thought. “It’s more like, nobody would believe me, even if I told them. They even might get mad at me for trying to pull a joke on them. I think someone threw a saucer at me once.”

“Ah. Okay.”

 _Not_ a special case, then.

“I’m really thankful that you believed in me, though, Hazuki,” Ryugazaki goes on, cool as a freaking cucumber, his velvet-smooth voice not betraying any hints of emotion. “I’ve always been watching you, after all.”

Back that up a little. Ryugazaki. Rei Ryugazaki. The same guy Nagisa skips club for to gape at when the track club practices. The same guy who Nagisa painstakingly made chocolates for on Valentine’s, only to eat said chocolates in frustration when he couldn’t find him anywhere. This is Rei Ryugazaki, who Nagisa had fallen irrevocably for ever since he helped Nagisa clamber up the school gate in first year – and he’d _always been watching_ Nagisa?

Oh. My. _God_.

“I...Ryugazaki-kun...”

Ryugazaki smiles a thin, obviously rarely-used smile, and goes on to say, “I’m a big fan of the art club. Of all the artists over there, I daresay your works are the most beautiful of the lot.”

Well, that’s...not what Nagisa wanted him to say, but still. Compliment.

“Ha ha, I, err, thanks?” Nagisa mumbles, scratching his nape absently. “It’s intriguing, though. Why’d you decide to write _shoujo_?”

“Hm? Ah, just felt like it,” Ryugazaki says, as breezily as one would when asked why they wore a particular sweater or something. Not exactly the passionate, emotional reply one would expect from the so-called ‘ _princess of modern-day romance_ ’.

“Isn’t that a bit of a stretch?” Nagisa prods, thinking that there must be a deeper reason to this, there just _has_ to be, for someone to come up with chapters and chapters of sappy romance without breaking a sweat. Some prior romantic history that Nagisa’s investigations didn’t pick up on? “I mean, writers normally put pieces of their own experiences in their work, right, Ryugazaki-kun? Is that the same for you?”

Ryugazaki smiles that tight smile again, though it’s done with a teensy bit more familiarity now. He pushes up his glasses – cherry red and striking against the blue-purple-gray of his uniform-clad silhouette – and says,

“I’d have to say that it isn’t the same for me, Hazuki. After all – I have never actually been in love in my entire life!”

If Nagisa were old enough, this would be the time when he asks for a drink. His head hurts.

“That's just not how it _works_ , Ryugazaki-kun!” Nagisa just about  _wails_ , wringing his head in his hands. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little thing about (Miko)Rinrin-chan.

Ryugazaki had told Nagisa, just a few minutes ago, that the second assistant in his posse – ‘ _Rinrin-san_ ’, he had admitted to calling the other, ‘ _though I refer to him like that only in my mind_ ’ – was shy and adorable and a bit of a crybaby when the mood struck right. So Nagisa had expected a bashful, delicate guy, the kind of _bishounen_ his sisters would eagerly fawn over.

He’s only half-right, however. Sure, Matsuoka is undoubtedly what one would call _bishounen_.

But that’s just about it, really.

See here, Rin Matsuoka is Rei Ryugazaki’s height and 100% intimidating with his stylish red hair and piercing eyes. His summer uniform shirt is wide open, showing a black muscle shirt underneath (holy crap would you just look at those _abs_ , how is he even real), and half a pair of cherry-red headphones is dangling precariously from his ears, as he favors Nagisa with a once-over that does a really good job of making his blood run freaking cold really fast.

There is _nothing_ shy, or adorable, or freaking _delicate_ about the way Matsuoka dismisses Nagisa with a single sneer, seemingly finding him wanting, for some weird reason. There’s a little corner of Nagisa’s mind that tells him Ryugazaki had probably been sarcastic, or had been pulling a joke on him, but he doesn’t even know how that would even work.

Does Ryugazaki even _do_ jokes? It does not compute. Then again, everything starting from ‘ _Ryugazaki-kun being shoujo manga-ka_ ’ did not compute, as far as Nagisa was concerned.

Matsuoka’s since turned his back to them, and from the looks of it he’s exchanging flirtations with some first-year girls he spots outside the window. Nagisa doesn’t exactly see the appeal behind the bad-boy-type – honestly doesn’t see the appeal behind everyone else who isn’t _Rei Ryugazaki_ – but from the excited squeals and sighs he can hear coming from the girls outside, he can see that Matsuoka’s got _game_ with the ladies.

_Which part of this guy was ‘shy’ again, huh, Ryugazaki-kun?_

Nagisa pulls Ryugazaki down to his eye level, ignoring the rabid butterfly colonies swarming ‘round his belly as he does so, ‘cuz he has to be completely freaking serious about stuff right this very moment, not fawning all over Ryugazaki, _again_. “Ryugazaki-kun, you can’t be serious.” he hisses, eyes moving back and forth from Matsuoka’s slumped-over back to the very nice lines of Ryugazaki’s profile. “ _This_ guy is ‘ _Rinrin_ ’? How? He’s a stereotypical bad boy, a big flirt, and to be quite honest with you he kinda gives me the creeps – what the hell is supposed to be cute about _that_!?”

“Well,” Rei ponders, clucking his tongue absently, as he blinks once, twice, alternates glances from his new friend to his old one. He can vaguely hear Rin say something about ‘little lambs’ again – _again_ , seriously, Rinrin, don’t you have better lines in your repertoire? – and calculates that Hazuki would most probably get what he means in a span of three minutes, tops. “Take another look.”

It’s been precisely fifteen seconds since Rin had dropped the little lambs line, according to Rei’s fancy-precise Swiss watch. He makes a little head tilt, indicating that Hazuki look back to the third member of their impromptu party. Rin’s still slouched over the open window, casual as can be – but from this view, this angle, they can both see that his cheeks are a dangerous, glowing _red_.

Twenty-five seconds, tomato cheeks. This is his usual progression.

Thirty seconds in is when Rin just crumples into himself like some kind of spineless animal, his head in his hands, and if Rei squints _really_ hard he thinks he could see actual _smoke_ coming out of Rin’s ears. It’s a quicker turnover than his usual embarrassment record of forty-seven seconds (yes, Rei _does_ take note of these events, actually), and Rei deduces that it probably has something to do with having him and Hazuki as his accidental audience. Rin was embarrassed of messing up in front of his old friend and a possible new one. How _cute_.

“You heard him earlier, right? He said those words himself, and how he’s embarrassed about it.” Rei says, grinning, pushing his glasses up with one hand. “Isn’t it _adorable_ , Hazuki-kun?”

A vein twitches in Nagisa’s temple. It’s equal parts due to second-hand embarrassment and due to the fact that he admits he’s freaking _jelly_ that Ryugazaki just called this other guy ‘ _adorable_ ’.

“If he’s gonna be embarrassed by it, then why the hell did he say it in the first place?”

If a bit of irrational bitterness sneaks its way into Nagisa’s voice, Ryugazaki doesn’t say anything about it – with Nagisa’s luck, it’s probably flew over his pretty artfully windswept hair, just like all of Nagisa’s other obvious shows of emotion – and just shrugs offhandedly. “Beats me.”

==

Later that night, when Ryugazaki admits that Chouko-chan, in all her bluster and chronic _tsundere_ nature, had been patterned after Rin Matsuoka _himself_ , Nagisa almost gets hot choco all over Ryugazaki’s really nice carpet.

The key word here being _almost_. Hence why Nagisa still gets to do beta work the day after and witness Matsuoka’s _surprisingly_ earnest cheer, too-attentive friendliness, and frankly _impressive_ skill with a pen.

Also, Matsuoka apparently has a thing for cherry blossoms, if the copious amounts of _sakura_ he somehow shoehorns into every other panel had anything to say about it.

**Author's Note:**

> God, it just has felt like so long since I last wrote for ReiNagi.  
> Casting goes Rei – Nozaki (formerly-quiet, oblivious, romantic beauty-obesser) and Nagisa – Sakura (cheerful, sometimes-awkward ball of sunshine). Other characters would’ve been casted as follows: Rin – Mikorin (cherry blossom fanatic, cool-looking crybABY DOOORK), Makoto – Yuu (school’s princess, perfect flawless angel, miracle of life), Haru – Hori (artistic, serious for the most part, takes it as his mission to cart Mako away from fans), Momo – Seo (talented, relentless, more than meets the eye), Ai – Waka (looks up to his senpai, blissfully innocent), and Sou – Mayu (honestly casted because I wanted an AU where he and Rei are actually cutie butterfly brothers).  
> If I go through with this casting, this means that I’m pretty much complying with the ‘canon’ pairs, in both Free! and GSNK (Nozakura > ReiNagi, MayuMiko > SouRin, HoriKashi > HaruMako, SeoWaka > MomoTori), which is interesting, seeing as in the GSNK fandom my ship is actually Miko/Sakura/Hori. Huh. (I also OTP HoriKashi, though, so I guess it’s a fair trade.)  
> Rei’s heroine’s name – Cho – is actually supposed to be pronounced Chou. With a long “o”. I’ve no idea if that was clear enough.  
> Anyway, obviously, I would’ve loved to go on with this AU even more (We haven’t even had MikoRin-Rin yet, the awkward model for Cho-chan! Also Haru taking Mako places. And MOMO THE PHANTOM (?) OF THE CHOIR CLUB HELL YES), but, as you may have noticed, exams. In fact, December 14 is scheduled as my MAS and AudProb exam day, so I’m probably not available by the time I get to link to this on Tumblr. But yeah.  
> Hope you liked reading this, nonetheless.


End file.
